Driven To Crime: True stories of wrongdoing in motor racing

People lie, cheat, steal, and even kill for various reasons, including motor racing, which is a costly and egotistical sport. This book explores over 60 true stories of crime in motor racing, involving drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement, robbery, fraud, murder, and money laundering. The author investigates misdemeanors at all levels, from drivers, designers, and mechanics to team owners, entrants, and sponsors. The book appeals to motor racing enthusiasts and anyone who enjoys reading about crime.

Format: Hardback
Length: 512 pages
Publication date: 27 October 2022
Publisher: Evro Publishing

Motorsport is a costly and egotistical sport that has driven people to commit a variety of crimes, including lying, cheating, stealing, and even killing. This fascinating book, the result of years of research, explores not only those who have been driven to crime to pay for their sport but also characters within motor racing who have been involved in wrongdoing, sometimes through no fault of their own. Over 60 true stories cover webs of deceit and numerous crimes, including drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement, robbery, fraud, murder, and money laundering. The author investigates misdemeanours at all levels, from drivers, designers, and mechanics to team owners, entrants, and sponsors. This book will appeal not only to motor racing enthusiasts and cognoscenti on both sides of the Atlantic but also to anyone who enjoys reading about crime.

Stories of motorsport chicanery from all over the world, including:

Fraud:

Southern Organs (lay preachers who faked suicide and hid on a remote Scottish island):

Jerry Dominelli (a Ponzi scheme that funded top-level racing Porsches):

Jean-Pierre Van Rossem (self-styled stock-market guru who bankrolled an F1 team):

Dominic Chappell (serial bankrupt racer brought down after purchasing a British department store):

David Thieme (the Lotus sponsor who vanished).

Murder:

David Blakely (the driver killed by his lover Ruth Ellis):

Franco Ambrosio (F1 sponsor of Shadow and Arrows):

Elmer George (American racer who married into Indy ‘royalty’):

Ricardo Londoño-Bridge (Colombias first F1 driver):

Mickey Thompson (1960s American drag-racing icon):

Nick Whiting (casualty of the biggest gold bullion heist in British history).

Swindles:

James Munroe (accounts manager who embezzled his way to a racing McLaren F1 GTR):

Lord Brocket.

Dimension: 234 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781910505700